This past Family Weekend, students and their families joined the Classics Society for their fourth annual Family Weekend dig, which takes participants to the Ozone by the college’s non-functioning observatory and provides tools for them to take part in an excavation.

It falls at just the right time too, as the leader of the dig, Professor Rulman of the Classics Department, noted that “October is Archeology Month, so what better way to celebrate it than a campus based dig during family weekend?”

There have been some notable discoveries on past digs, with some students and their families having found evidence of an 18th century road that ran through the area, as well as remnants of a mill.

Professor Rulman stated that the remains found indicate that the structure was destroyed by fire.

Melanie Powell, a current senior, took part in the Family Weekend Archeology Dig her first year at school, and recalls finding some coal and nails that were left over after the mill burned.

She also credits this event with a major part of her college career, being her minor in Classical Archaeology.

“It was my first exposure to archeology and made me want to minor in Classical Archeology and go on the dig in Italy,” Powell said.

Powell is one of many Saint Anselm students that have had the opportunity to study at the college’s campus in Orvieto, Italy, where every summer, students participate in a dig on a much larger scale.

Many are able to tack on the many field hours while in Orvieto, spending six weeks in the summer heat digging and discovering things left under centuries of dirt from ancient civilizations.

When asked what the appeal to families is for this event, Professor Rulman noted the novelty, saying that “It is always fun to be outside digging to discover long forgotten evidence of the past in the college’s back yard.”